“We’ve built a number of satellites for SJC and we’re honored that they have placed their trust in us again,” said Carl Marchetto, vice president and general manager of Commercial Space at Lockheed Martin Space Systems. “And with the sale of an additional A2100, it adds yet another satellite to our healthy backlog.”

The JCSAT-17 satellite operates on an S band with a lifespan of over 15 years. A flexible processor will be built into the A2100 satellite and this will enable SJC to redirect it to cover disaster relief efforts or some other dire events that capture national and international attention.

This is the 8th satellite to be awarded to Lockheed Martin by SJC. It all began with the NSAT-110 through JCSAT-9 to JCSAT-13, and then recently the JCSAT-110R. The JCSAT-17 will be constructed in Colorado and delivered in 2019.

This particular satellite will be manufactured based on a flight-proven bus that drives over 40 satellites already in orbit today.

Lockheed Martin was able to boost the satellites power, propulsion, and electronics using multiyear efforts, while applying the most modern and advanced production systems to reduce manufacturing costs and timelines among other things.